Dow Closes Below 8000
Via Bloomberg
U.S. stocks sank and benchmark indexes slid to their lowest levels since 2003 on growing concern over the health of the financial system and survival of the nation's car industry.
Citigroup Inc. slid 23 percent to $6.40, a 13-year low, on a plan to buy $17.4 billion of troubled investment-fund assets.
General Motors Corp. tumbled 9.7 percent to its lowest price since the 1940s, while Ford Motor Co. lost 25 percent. Fourteen companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 20 percent or more as government data signaled the recession is deepening.``Hideous day,'' said Bill Stone, who oversees $56 billion a chief investment strategist at PNC Wealth Management in Philadelphia. ``It's hard to put a basement on this thing.''
The S&P 500 slipped 6.1 percent to 806.58, extending its 2008 retreat to 45 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 427.47 points, or 5.1 percent, to 7,997.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 6.5 percent to 1,386.42. Twenty-eight stocks fell for each that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.
Off-topic, but kinda related....
Just HOW does an oil tanker carrying 100M (did I hear that correctly?) Barrels of oil get taken by pirates? How do the shippers NOT know about the situation with the pirates off the east coast of Africa?
Things that make you go hmm....
- Email this page
By roadgoddessNovember 19, 2008 - 10:07pmAsleep at the wheel...
Oil tanker CEO's probably hired a skeleton non-union crew that could hardly handle past pushing a button to stop. Nobody sober on watch.
Thats what happened to the Valdez.
Put it in autopilot, and hoist the Glenlivet.
- Email this page
By aaazzz111November 20, 2008 - 1:44amIt's amusing
...that a similar pirate crew tried attacking a US-flagged merchant ship a couple of weeks ago.
A ship of the Military Sealift Command.
Civilian crew, military officers. And all of them trained in vessel security, including marksmanship.
Needless to say, the attempted pirate attack was NOT successful. *evil grin*
When is the International Maritime Organization going to add marksmanship and vessel security to the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers? Vessel security is currently a requirement for deck officers; I think it should be a standard for all crewmembers.
Discuss.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. ~~~John Kenneth Galbraith
- Email this page
By nonexistent manNovember 20, 2008 - 9:49amI thought I heard something about...
... not being allowed to be armed because of some laws?
I barely caught it.
I don't know if it was international law or law in the nation of registry or what... Then I heard something the option of hiring private security forces?
I'm confused.
It does seem like kind of a no-brainer... On the high seas it would be crazy not to be armed. If someone tries to board you, you blow them out of the water and ask questions later.
The whole thing is puzzling to me.
- Email this page
By A GNovember 20, 2008 - 10:34amArming merchant crews is not really productive
Have you seen what the pirates are armed with? They not only carry the standard automatic weapons, they also have RPGs. So, merchant ships would have to be armed with something more lethal and longer-ranged than that. This will result in the pirates getting better weapons themselves, and organizing into larger groups. The only way to effectively end this in the short term is for naval vessels with large professional crews and superior firepower to do what the Indian frigate did a couple of days ago: destroy the mother ships that allow large groups of pirates to operate farther out in the shipping lanes than ever before. Long term, nothing can be solved as long as Somalia is a lawless group of warlords. Clinton tried to do something about that, but after a small group of Marines was killed, repubs in congress demanded an end to the mission.
Truth is whatever you can get other people to believe - Tom Smothers
- Email this page
By UffdaguyNovember 20, 2008 - 10:54amI hate to sound cold BUT...
Personally, I thought bailing out of Somalia was a good call.
I didn't see ANYTHING in that inbred cluster-fuck that was worth the life of a single American kid.
Fuck 'em.... Nothing a few well placed Neutron devices wouldn't solve... fucking animals.
I'm all for stopping genocide and saving civilization but frankly, I didn't SEE any civilization there to save...
You know what?.. When 90% of your population's entire daily lives are dedicated to nothing more than homocidal criminal activity??... You're not human,... You're a pestilence.
========================
OK, I'm being a bit dramatic, but you get my point.
I didn't see anything in Somalia worth a single American kid's life.
- Email this page
By A GNovember 20, 2008 - 11:48amBy A G November 20, 2008 - 10:34am
Why would they have to be armed? Why can't their companies hire escort ships for security until they get out to open sea?
- Email this page
By roadgoddessNovember 20, 2008 - 10:12pmARRRGH!
NOW WHERE MIGHT ONE FENCE SIXTY MILLION GALLONS OF CRUDE OIL?
============================
Seriously... between spy satellites, air patrols, and radar, how the hell can these guys operate so successfully and with such impunity??
You can't paddle a fucking one-man kayak from Nassau to Miami with a dime bag of reefer without being detected, captured, and punished.
I mean, WTF?
- Email this page
By A GNovember 20, 2008 - 10:38amNavy Seal or equiv. boarding takes some gathering of data
If the pirates have it rigged to detonate, it would cause a great ins. co. loss, or environ. spill. Talk would seem the best first response.
- Email this page
By aaazzz111November 20, 2008 - 10:47amWell, sure... NOW negotiating is the right response.
Sure, they have everyone by the short hairs NOW... for environmental reasons alone, as you point out.
Nobody's suggesting a military operation at this point... That ship has sailed, if you'll excuse the pun.
But these clowns are common criminals with assault rifles and a few RPGs... with no more strategic ot tactical accumen than a Central Park mugger.
=============================
You know what I'm thinking??...
TARGET PRACTICE!
- Email this page
By A GNovember 20, 2008 - 11:25am